Explore The Similarities Between 'It Follows' And 'Halloween' With New Video Essay

One of the biggest trends in horror films over the last few years is paying homage to films of the '80s in the form of plot, special effects, music, and atmosphere. Of all the films that honor its predecessors,It Follows manages to successful tribute the generations of horror films that came before it while also bringing new and unique themes to the table. The film drew many comparisons to John Carpenter's Halloween, leading a Alessio Marinacci to combine some of the most similar shots from both films, making the homages quite obvious.

Director David Robert Mitchell's film is far from being the only genre movie to pay tribute to Carpenter, one of the greatest horror directors of all time, but few films are as bold with referencing their influences.

In It Follows, a supernatural entity pursues and kills its targets based on their sexual behavior, essentially using this killer as an allegory for the pressures of sex and fear of STDs as a teenager. In addition to the film's cinematography, its score by Disasterpiece featured pulsing synth music, similar to the music Carpenter provided for Halloween and many of his other films.

Maika Monroe starred in It Follows, coincidentally having also starred in 2014's The Guest, another film that borrowed elements from John Carpenter. Written by Simon Barrett and directed by Adam Wingard, The Guest told the story of a soldier, played by Dan Stevens, that visited the family of a fallen platoon member. The mysterious "Guest" was charming and helped out around the house, but also had a mysterious, and potentially nefarious, past.

Wingard described the inspiration for the film as the result of watching Carpenter's Halloween and James Cameron's The Terminator back-to-back, leading him to combine the themes of a mysterious stalker with science fiction themes of someone who appeared to be human actually being much more than that. The film's climax also included direct nods to Halloween III: Season of the Witch, projecting large images of that sequel's prevalent masks in a haunted house sequence.

Due to how well The Guest emulated Carpenter's style and themes, Wingard and Barrett were often considered frontrunners for a new Halloween sequel, but those rumors quickly fizzled out after the filmmakers revealed they had already made "their own" Halloween film with The Guest.

Danny McBride and David Gordon Green will be bringing a new Halloween sequel to the big screen in 2018, hoping to course-correct from some of the directions the later sequels and remakes went, setting their story after the events of Halloween II.